Method and apparatus for producing pile fabrics



W. A. RICE Feb. 19, 1957 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING FILE FABRICS3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 28, 1955 It 7 z Feb. 19, 1957 A, l2,781,789

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING PILE FABRICS Filed Sept. 28, 1955 3Sheets-Sheet 2 7 FIG. 5

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W. A. RICE Feb. 19, 1957 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING PILE FABRICSFiled Sept. 28, 1955 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 a] Q JZVENTOR wzdw wfla BY V IATTORNEYJ loom;

2,781,189 Patented Feb. 19,

' METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING PILE FABRICS 7 Walter A. Rice,Amsterdam, N. Y., assignor, by mesne assignments, to Mohaseo Industries,Inc., Amsterdam, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application September28, 1955, Serial No. 537,215

9 Claims. (Cl. 13938) This invention relates to the production of pilefabrics by weaving operations and is concerned more particularly with anovel method, by which pile fabrics having a pile of loops varying inheight in accordance with a pattern can be made rapidly and at low cost.The method can be advantageously practiced. on a loom forming part ofthe invention and of the hook type and, if desired, the new loom may beemployed in accordance with. the method to produce a pile fabric, inwhich the loops are of uniform height but substantially shorter thanthose of fabrics made on ordinary hook looms.

Hook looms have been used for many years in the production of pilefabrics and, as usually constructed, such looms have a set of hooksmounted for reciprocation and operated at the proper time in the loomcycle to engage pile warp yarns in the upper line of a shed and draw theyarns out of the shed to form loops. While the loops of pile yarn are soheld by the hooks, the weaving proceeds and, when the loops have beenbound in place by one orv more picks of filling inserted and beaten up,the hooks release the loops and the cycle of operation is repeated. Hooklooms are of sturdy reliable construction and can be used to producefabric at relatively low cost. However, as ordinarily constructed, theycannot produce a fabric having loops of different height and also theloops of a hook loom fabric are much longer than is desirable for somepurposes.

The present invention is, accordingly, directed to. the provision of amethod of weaving, which can beutilized in the production of fabricshaving pile loops varying in height as determined by a pattern and theinvention further includes a new form of hook loom for practicing theinvention.

For a better understanding of the invention, reference may be made tothe accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic sideelevational view with parts.

broken away of a hook loom modified for the practice of the method ofthe invention;

Fig. 1A is a detailed view showing the manner of in-' serting the,filling yarns into the shed;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view on the line 2-2 of Fig. 3; W

.Fig. 3 is a fragmentary front elevational view of the Fig. 4 is a viewin elevation of a pattern member employed in the loom;

Figs. 5-8, incl, are diagrammatic views illustrating the operation ofthe loom; and Fig. 9 is a detailed view showing the manner of ing astepwise, movement to the pattern drum.

The loom shown has sides 10 and is equipped with the usual harnessmotion 11 including the heddle frames 12,

pp ynite States Patent Ofifice spools in a frame or creel, while thestufier and binder warp yarns are supplied, from respective beams. Theth has a shuttle motion or a needle motion for insert ing filling yarnsin the warp sheds and the inserted yarns are beaten up by the usual layincluding a reed 18 mounted on swords 19 fast on a rocker shaft (notshown). In Fig. 1A the needle N for inserting the filling yarn into thesheds is illustrated in section and the two parts of the loop of fillingyarn lying in the eye of the needle and carried across the shed aredesignated at 38.

' At the front of the loom, a breast beam 20 is mounted between upwardextensions 10a of the sides and the extensions are provided at theirtops with grooves serving as guideways, in which a bar 21 extendingacross the loom a short distance above the breast beam is mounted forreciprocation lengthwise of the yarns. The bar is provided with aplurality of hook members 22 in the form of thin flat wires and themembers extend through the dents in the reed 18 to terminate in heads 23lying vertically between the yarns at the side of the reed adjacent theharness motion. Each wire has a hook 22a formed on its lower edge andbent out of the plane of the wire, the

hook pointing toward the breast beam. The bar 21 is reciprocated in theguideways by rocker arms 24 pivoted on the frame extensions 10a andactuated by links 25 connected to arms 26 on a rocker shaft27. The links25 are providedwith an adjustment device 28, such as a turn buckle, forvarying the length of the links and thus varying the length of the pathof travel of bar 21.

The pile warp yarns on their way from the spools to the harness 12'passover a fixed gripping member 29, whichis mounted between upwardextensions 10b of the loom sides and has its top faced with a layer ofyielding material, such as leather. A drum 30 carrying a plurality ofradial pattern members31 is mounted above the fixed gripping member 29with its shaft 32 supported in bearings in arms 33, 34. The arms 'areprovided with screws 35 threaded through the arms and into the tops ofthe extensions 10!), so that the arms can be raised and lowered by thescrews to vary the position of the drum relative to the fixed grippingmember 29. The screws are provided with lock nuts 36. The drum is drivenfrom one of the shafts of the loom through a ratchet and pawl device andchain 37 and is advanced stepwise to bring thepattern members 31successively into effective position in relation to the fixed grippingmember 29. After a member 31 is in effective position, the drum remainsat rest during the insertion and beat-up of at least one filling yarn.for driving the drum is illustrated in Fig. 9. 'In this figure a ratchetwheel 39 is mounted on 'a shaft carrying a, sprocket Wheel (not shown),about which chain 37is trained. An arm 40, loose on the shaft, carries aspringactuated pawl 41 engaging the ratchet wheel- The ratchet wheel isheld against return movement by a stop pawl 42. The arm 40 is connectedby a link 43 to an arm 44 fast on therocker shaft 27 so' that as thebar-21 carrying the books is moved by the rocker shaft, the ratchetwheel is advanced to advance the pattern drum stepwise in timed relationto the operation of the hooks.

The ratchet and pawl device "the facing 29a on the fixed gripping member29, and the members 31 a'reso formed that they can clamp pile yarnsdetermined by the pattern against the member 29, while other pile yarnsmay pass between members 29 and 31 such as section 31a, which are togrip the yarns, the member 31 is of full width, while, at othersectipns, such as section 311 the member is' cut away, so that fthe"yarn opposite those sections pass freely between members 29 and 31. Thearrangement'of the entouts in the edges of the members 31 varies inaccordance with the pattern and the members mounted on thed'rum form aset em ployed in producing a repeat of the pattern.

The cycle of operation of a form of the new loom equipped with a needlemotion is illustrated diagrammatically in Figs. 5-8, incl., in which theaction of hookmemher 22' is that of all the hook members. In Fig. 5, the

hook member is shown in the release position after having.

released a pile yarn loop 15a, and the hook member remains in thatposition, until after the beat-up of the filling shot 3&1. As soon asthe beat-up of shot 38a has been completed, the second shed of the cycleis formed with the pile yarns in the upper line, as shown in Fig. 6. Thehook member then moves to the rear, until its hook 22a has passedbetween the pile yarns, and at once reverses direction and moves forwardfrom its position shown in Fig. 6 to its position shown in Fig. 7. Inits forward movement, the hook 220 of the member engages the pile yarn15 and draws it out of the top line of the shed to form the loop 15b.During the movement of the hook member to the rear and then forward, thesecond filling shot 38b of the cycle is inserted and beaten up and,while the hook member continues to hold the loop 15b of pile yarn, thethird shed of the cycle, shown in Fig. 7, is formed and the thirdfilling shot38c is inserted in the shed and beaten up to bind the loopin place.

The pile yarn 15, shown in Figs. 5-8, inel., is one, which has beengripped between a pattern member 31 and the fixed gripping member priorto the forward movement of the hook member 22 with its hook 22a drawingthe yarn out of the shed to form loop 15]). Accordingly, the drawing outof the yarn to form the loop has stretched the yarn, as indicated by thearrows'in Fig. 7, and has placed it under substantial tension.

As soon as the filling shot 38c binding the loop has been beaten up, thehook member moves back a short distance to its release position, whereit is shown in Figs. 5 and 8. In this movement, the hook 22a on themember is disengaged from the loop and, as soon as this occurs, thetension on the yarn causes it to contract. As a result, part of the yarnin the loop is drawn out, as indicated by the arrows in Figs. 5 and 8,and the loop is reduced in height. The fourth shed of the cycle isformed, as the hook member moves to the release position, and the fourthfilling shot 38d is inserted in the shed and beaten up. The cycle is nowcompleted and is repeated indefinitely.

During each cycle of the weaving operation, the pile yarns 15,.Which arenot gripped between the gripping member 29 and a pattern member 31, aredrawn out by their hook members to form loops, as shown in Fig. 7, but,since the yarns are not restrained by members 29 and 31, they are notput under tension, as they are drawn out. Accordingly, when the hookmembers move to the release position to free the loops of such yarns,

the loops remain at their. full height and, by proper formation of thepattern members, the pile of the fabric may be formed of high and lowloopsin any desired arrangement.

In the operation of the loom, the rotation of the pattern drum is timedin relation to the action of the hook members, so that a pattern member31 is in effective position clamping selected yarns against the fixedgrip- 4 ping member 29 before the hook members have completed theirdrawing out of the yarns to form the pile loops. If the maximumdifference in height between the high loops and the low loops isdesired, the pattern members are brought to effective position beforethe hook members begin to draw out the pile yarns, but the clampingaction may start somewhat later, in which event less tension is imposedon the gripped yarns and their loops are reduced in height to a'lessextent. In all cases, the pattern members remain in effective relationto the gripping member, until after the hooks have released their loops,so that the tension onthe yarns may have full effect in reducing theheight of the loops.

When it is desired to produce a plain fabric having loops of a uniformheight but of less height than those of fabrics produced on an ordinaryhook loom, the pattern members employed are of uniform width from end toend, so that each member will grip all the pile warp yarns, when it isin effective position. Accordingly, all the yarns are gripped before thedrawing out of the yarns starts.

placed under tension, as they are drawn out to form pile loops, and allthe loops are reduced in height to the same extent by the tension, whenthey are released by the hooks. Since all the pattern members used inproducing a fabric with loops of uniform height are alike, the set ofpattern members may be replaced by a single member reciprocated towardand away from the fixed member 29.

In the production of fabrics with loops of uniform height, the heightmay be varied by varying the tension on the yarns and this can beaccomplished by altering the timing of the gripping action in relationto the drawing out of the pile yarns by the hooks. The maximum tensionis imposed on the yarns and the greatest reduction in the height of theloops occurs, when the yarns are To obtain longer loops, the grippingaction is delayed until after thedrawing out of the yarns begins and thelonger the delay in the gripping, the longer will be the loops.

I claim:

l. A method of weaving a pile fabric, which comprises forming sheds ofpile and binder warp yarns, inserting a filling yarn into each shed andbeating up the inserted yarn, periodically drawing the pile warp yarnsontof the top line of sheds to form pile loops, retaining the yarnsdrawn out in loop form until after the insertion and beat-up of afilling yarn binding the loops, clamping selected pile warp yarns to bedrawn out of a shed to form loops by gripping the yarns at the side ofthe shed remote from the fell of the fabric, and releasing the pile yarnloops and the clamped yarns in that order.

2. The method of claim 1, in which the'clamping of the pile warp yarnsis effected after the drawing out of the yarns to form loops is started.

3. The method of claim 1, in which the release of the loops occurs asuflicient length of time before the release of the clampedyarns toenable the tension in the clamped yarns to reduce the size of the loops.

4. A loom for weaving a pile fabric containing interwoven pile andbinder warp yarns and filling yarns with the pile warp yarns havingloops projecting out of the body of the fabric to form the pile, theloom having a harness motion for forming sheds of the warp yarns, meansfor inserting filling yarns into the sheds, and lay means for beatingup, the inserted filling yarns, characterized in the provision of hooksfor drawing pile warp yarns out of the top line of sheds to form pileloops, clamping means for gripping selected pile warp yarns at the sideof the harness motion remote from the lay means, and means for operatingthe hook means and the clamping means in timed relation to cause theclamping means to grip the pile warp yarns before the hook meanscompletes the.

loops and the hook means to release the loops before the clamping meansreleases the gripped yarns.

5. 'The loom of claim 4, in which the clamping means includes a fixedmember, an endless series of movable members, the fixed and movablemembers lying on oppo- 5 site sides of the pile warp yarns on their wayto the 8. The loom of claim 5, in which the movable memharness motion,and means for advancing the series of bers are mounted upon an endlesscarrier. movable members to cause the members thereof to clamp 9. Theloom of claim 8, in which the carrier is a drum selected yarns againstthe fixed member. carrying the wires on its surface.

6. The loom of claim 5, in which the movable mern- 5 bers are fiat wiresand the fixed member has a yielding References Cited in the file of thispatent surface, against which the movable members clamp the selectedpile Warp yarns. UNITED STATES PATENTS 7. The loom of claim 5, in whichthe movable mem- 2547824 Kahn 1951 bers are advanced intermittently andclamp the yarns 10 FOREIGN PATENTS during periods of rest of themembers. 6,332 Great Britain of 1905

